Duchess of Rutland: I'm glad my daughter will not inherit dukedom

The Duchess of Rutland has said that it is right that inheritance passes through the male line and is ‘delighted’ that her daughter will not inherit the dukedom because it involves so much hard work.

Emma Manners, said she did not want her eldest child Violet, 22, to bear the responsibility of heading the estate even though she considers herself to be CEO of Belvoir Castle and its surrounding parkland.

Speaking at The Hay Festival, the Duchess said that if was right that her fourth child Charles, 16, the Marques of Granby should inherit.

“The aristocracy is a bit like being a farmer’s daughter from the Welsh hills, everything goes to the boys, quite rightly, but in our case to the oldest son,” she said.

“Like any parent a Duke will pass his fortune through the generations but his title as we know has to be inherited by the son. The English peerage and Violet has said ‘thank goodness for that mum. I know how hard it is.’

“Charles will inherit and the titles and land go with that. But it’s a responsibility and it’s a responsibility that I am delighted my daughter doesn’t have to have.”

Last year lady Violet and her younger sisters Lady Alice and Lady Eliza Manners were accused of upsetting neighbours with their wild "all-night" parties, with complaints it was like "living next door to a nightclub".

The Duchess said it was natural to think that the family was ‘posh and spoilt’ but admitted that she would rather shop at Asda than Waitrose, and said it was only this year that Belvoir had begun to turn a profit, a modest £50,000.

The Duchess of Rutland speaking at The Hay FestivalCredit:
Jay Williams

She has been transforming the gardens and park around the estate back to the original vision of master garden designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown who first drew up plans for the 4th Duke of Rutland in 1780.

Brown died three years later and the garden was never completed, but the rolled-up blueprints were recently discovered in the Belvoir archives and the Duchess has set about completing the work 236 years behind schedule.

It is the latest plan to secure the future of Belvoir which was crumbling when the current Duke and Duchess originally moved in 15 years ago, with a rotting two-and-a-half acre roof.

Recalling the first few weeks of inhabiting the castle, she said: “It was early morning and the children came screaming into our room saying ‘mummy, mummy, the castle’s flooding. It was. The water was streaming through out library into the newly decorated drawing room two floors below.

“So I took to the roof with Barber brolly and wellies and scaled myself across down steps to the right hand tower and I remember well sliding down into a gully and one of my most satisfying moments in my job at Belvoir was pulling out three dead pigeons.

“The flood went away instantaneously. If every job was as easy as that I could probably build another castle.”

The Duchess said she had had to ‘learn to be a Duchess’ and visited the ‘Debo’ Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth House for advice.

“I remember sitting down with Debo and the late Duke and he turned to Debo and said: ‘Have you told her yet old girl that you make the money and we spend it.’,” she told the audience.

“The castle had been sleeping for some 70 years since the second world war and the woods and the farm and the estate and I was desperate that I should shake up the dust sheets and shake it off again.”

The Duchess of Rutland at Belvoir Castle

But she said she had run into problems during the renovation including accidentally uprooting more than 50 trees which had been planted to commemorate fallen soldiers in the Second World War. A furious digger driver also rammed his shovel into the wall of the castle following a disagreement.

In recent years the Duchess has found romance with her estate manager Phil Burtt whom she said was essential to the project, and whom she described as ‘Capability Burtt.’ The Duke and Duchess have been estranged since in 2012, but both still live on the estate with separate partners.

Burtt was originally taken on as their shoot manager in 2008 but was appointed estate manger three year later.

“Phil Burtt, my dear right hand man and friend has a landscapers eye,” she said. “He set to work and after hundreds of hours of his eye and a man with a bulldozer we have restored the programme of the woodlands and lake. My very own Capability Burtt.

“We’ve been able to continue the work of generations of gardeners and the previous duchesses at Belvoir.”